Twitter is one of the social media giants, ruling over the social networks. It is a microblogging service and social network that allows its users to send messages of up to 140 characters, called tweets.

The site revolves around the principle of followers. You can choose to follow another twitter user and people will follow you. You will see the tweets of the people you follow displayed on a home page and you are able to reply to those people or to re-tweet (RT) or modify-tweet (MT) any tweets that you find interesting or relevant.

Twitter was launched in July 2006 and has enjoyed very rapid growth all over the world. Its users generate 340 million tweets a day boosting Twitter into the ten most visited sites on the internet. It is a staple for most businesses, used to engage with their customers and to give their customers a voice.

Twitter, like other forms of social media is all about content, and not just pushing your product. It is important to be engaging, conversational and informative. Most people will unfollow if tweets become dull, repetitive or centred around a product.

It’s really important to listen to the Twitter community before you jump. Find out what people are saying about your product or company so that you can join in with the correct tone. If no one is talking about your company, don’t worry – YOU can start the conversation!

Twitter will allow you to follow up to 2000 people to begin with, but it makes sense to build the number of people you follow gradually and to be discerning. Once your followers and following numbers level out you can increase your following number. It is best to follow people who will be interested in your product or company. You can search for people on Twitter or follow followers of another user or the people they follow. In this way you will build up a network of people who are really interested in what you write and will therefore interact with you more, by re-tweeting and by responding to your tweets. They too will tweet things that you find interesting and relevant and so you can respond to them. You can use hashtags to create and interact with groups on Twitter and these can feed your tweets to relevant groups, which will garner you more followers.

Finally, it is important that you know what you want from Twitter and that you have a strategy. Setting goals before starting up allows you to track what you’re doing and achieving and to make sure it is beneficial for your company. Make sure your profile is branded and appropriate so people know who you are and can find you easily. Twitter is a great way to let people know who you are and what you’re doing. Keep your tweets informative and interesting, with links and pictures and watch the results!

Don’t forget, you can register on the Shake Social website and download our FREE guide to getting started on Twitter, packed with handy tips and useful advice.

By Harriet Thacker. You can follow Harriet on Twitter here.